<< 2011 >>
<< January >>
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28 29
30 31

January 2011

Saturday, 1/1

Sunday, 1/2

Monday, 1/3

Tuesday, 1/4

Wednesday, 1/5

Thursday, 1/6

Friday, 1/7

Saturday, 1/8

Sunday, 1/9

Monday, 1/10

Tuesday, 1/11

Wednesday, 1/12

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Thursday, 1/13

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Friday, 1/14

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Saturday, 1/15

Sunday, 1/16

Monday, 1/17

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Tuesday, 1/18

"State of the Union," Photography by Linh Dinh

a Brodsky Gallery Opening

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV
listen: to an audio recording of this event on PennSound

Born in Vietnam, Linh Dinh is a poet, fiction writer, and photographer. His photo blog, State of the Union, tracks our "deteriorating socialscape" with 2,100 photos and counting. Dinh is the author of two collections of stories from Seven Stories Press, Fake House (2000) and Blood and Soap (2004), five books of poems, All Around What Empties Out (Tinfish 2003), American Tatts (Chax 2005), Borderless Bodies (Factory School 2006), Jam Alerts (Chax 2007) and Some Kind of Cheese Orgy (Chax 2009), and a novel, Love Like Hate (Seven Stories 2010). His work has been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, Best American Poetry 2004, Best American Poetry 2007 and Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, among other places. Dinh is also the editor of the anthologies Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (Seven Stories Press 1996) and Three Vietnamese Poets (Tinfish 2001), and translator of Night, Fish and Charlie Parker, the poetry of Phan Nhien Hao (Tupelo 2006).


Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Wednesday, 1/19

Speakeasy: Poetry, Prose, and Anything Goes!

8:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV
listen: to an audio recording of this event

Speakeasy is an open mic night held at the Kelly Writers House every other Wednesday evening. It's an opportunity for writers to share their work, or the work of others, in a friendly setting. Speakeasy was founded in 1997 and continues to be an important part of the regular Writers House programming series. We welcome poets, storytellers, singers, musicians, and anything in between to share their voices with us in the Arts Cafe twice a month. As always: Poetry, prose, anything goes!


Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Thursday, 1/20

North of Invention: A Canadian Poetry Festival (Day One)

featuring: a.rawlings · fred wah · christian bök · m. nourbese philip · stephen collis · nicole brossard · jeff derksen · jordan scott · adeena karasick · lisa robertson

10:00 AM to 10:00 PM

hosted by: Sarah Dowling and Charles Bernstein
co-sponsored by: the Canada Council for the Arts, the University Research Fund, the Provost's Interdisciplinary Arts Fund, Asian American Studies, the Working Group in Poetics, and Writers Without Borders
explore: audio and video recordings of the entire event at PennSound

North of Invention presents 10 Canadian poets working at the cutting edge of contemporary poetic practice, bringing them first to the Kelly Writers House, then to Poets House in New York City for two days of readings, presentations and discussion in each location. Celebrating the breadth and complexity of poetic experimentation in Canada, North of Invention features emerging and established poets working across multiple traditions, and represents nearly fifty years of experimental writing. North of Invention aims to initiate a new dialogue in North American poetics, addressing the hotly debated areas of "innovation" and "conceptual writing," the history of sound poetry and contemporary performance, multilingualism and translation, and connections to activism.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Friday, 1/21

North of Invention: A Canadian Poetry Festival (Day Two)

featuring: a.rawlings · fred wah · roy miki · m. nourbese philip · stephen collis · nicole brossard · jeff derksen · jordan scott · adeena karasick · lisa robertson

9:30 AM to 10:00 PM

hosted by: Sarah Dowling and Charles Bernstein
co-sponsored by: the Canada Council for the Arts, the University Research Fund, the Provost's Interdisciplinary Arts Fund, Asian American Studies, the Working Group in Poetics, and the Writers Without Borders
explore: audio and video recordings of the entire event at PennSound

North of Invention presents 10 Canadian poets working at the cutting edge of contemporary poetic practice, bringing them first to the Kelly Writers House, then to Poets House in New York City for two days of readings, presentations and discussion in each location. Celebrating the breadth and complexity of poetic experimentation in Canada, North of Invention features emerging and established poets working across multiple traditions, and represents nearly fifty years of experimental writing. North of Invention aims to initiate a new dialogue in North American poetics, addressing the hotly debated areas of "innovation" and "conceptual writing," the history of sound poetry and contemporary performance, multilingualism and translation, and connections to activism.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Saturday, 1/22

Sunday, 1/23

Monday, 1/24

LIVE at the Writers House

7:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

listen: to an audio recording of this event

LIVE at the Writers House is a long-standing collaboration between the Kelly Writers House and WXPN FM (88.5). Six times annually between September and April, Michaela Majoun hosts a one-hour broadcast of poetry, music, and other spoken-word art, along with one musical guest, all from our Arts Cafe onto the airwaves at WXPN. LIVE is made possible by generous support from BigRoc. For more information, contact Producer Erin Gautsche (gautsche@writing.upenn.edu).

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Tuesday, 1/25

5th Anniversary of the Common Press

6:00 PM throughout the first floor of KWH

The Common Press is a letterpress project founded in January, 2006, the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin's birth, as a collaboration of the Kelly Writers House, the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and the School of Design. Last year, our imprint within the Common Press – the Robinson Press – was generously endowed by Nina Robinson Vitow. We'll mark the 5th anniversary of the Common Press – and thank Nina – with two events:


Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Wednesday, 1/26

Mind of Winter

featuring Emily Harnett, Jamie-Lee Josselyn, Trisha Low, Molly O'Neill, Alex Marcus, Max McKenna, Bob Perelman, and Al Filreis

5:30 PM in the Arts Cafe

rsvp: email wh@writing.upenn.edu or call 215-746-POEM

In January of every year, the Writers House Planning Committee embraces the post-holiday doldrums with a celebration of winter's comforts, inspired by Wallace Stevens's chilly poem, "The Snow Man." We gather here at the Writers House, stoke a big fire in the parlor, simmer several big pots of soups and stews, and share our favorite winter-themed readings with one another. Let it snow! Please RSVP to wh@writing.upenn.edu or call 215-746-POEM.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Thursday, 1/27

UAB Winter Reading Project discussion

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

6:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

watch: a video recording of this event via KWH-TV
listen: to an audio recording of this event

The English Undergraduate Advisory Board presents its 2011 Winter Reading Project: Milan Kundera's Unbearable Lightness of Being. Join us for a discussion of the novel with beloved Penn professors and literature scholars, including our own Jean-Michel Rabaté. We'll have plenty of food, alongside good reading and discussion. Extra copies of the book are available at Fisher-Bennett for free, so pick one up and come to the panel to explore literature and writing with your colleagues and friends.


Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Friday, 1/28

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)

Saturday, 1/29

Sunday, 1/30

Monday, 1/31

A meeting of the Writers House Planning Committee (the "Hub")

5:00 PM in the Arts Cafe

rsvp: jalowent@writing.upenn.edu

From the time of its founding in 1995-1996, the Kelly Writers House has been run more or less collectively by members of its community. Our original team of intrepid founders—the group of students, faculty, alumni, and staff who wanted to create an independent haven for writers and supporters of contemporary writing in any genre—took for themselves the name "the hub." "Hub" was the generic term given by Penn's Provost, President, and other planners who hoped that something very innovative would be done at 3805 Locust Walk to prove the viability of the idea that students, working with others, could create an extracurricular learning community around common intellectual and creative passions. To this day, the Writers House Planning Committee refers to itself as "the hub"—the core of engaged faculty, student, staff, and alumni volunteers from whom the House's creative energy and vitality radiates.

New and old Hub members alike are welcome to join us for pizza and a discussion of upcoming readings and programs, volunteer opportunities, and updates from project leaders. Anyone is welcome to join the Writers House Planning Committee. At this first meeting of the year we will discuss ways you can get involved at Writers House.

Go here to get a sense of what we do; go here for sound clips and photos from our end-of-year party; go here for a list of campus publications.

Meetings and classes (may require registration or permission; email for more info)